Best Cheap Bass

ClutchIt

Hey everyone,

I need to buy a bass just for writing with and nothing special. Under €200 if possible, what would ye reckon at all? Cheers

punchdrunk

you can't go wrong with a squire P-bass...

feylya

Try an SX Jazz bass. Surprisingly nice. You can get them in Waltons.

ClutchIt

cool,

anyone ever play a Washburn or Aria bass?
They have them down here in Limerick, I'm going to try them out maybe at the weekend

Nahguavkire

Squier, Cort, Yamaha or Ibanez... Any one of those would be good for that money, buy secondhand too and you'll get something a little bit nicer...

not bakunin

Shop around...and definitly look second hand.

I was delighted when i got my Fender Precision for €230 and a trade in of my old, ridiculously horribly crap Ashton a while back.

I love it!

Eightor

I'd definitely recommend looking into a Squier.

Sevenspeed

I mainly play guitar but needed a cheap bass guitar (mainly for the occasional recording purposes), went for a Rodeo bass on www.guitar-warehouse.com . Is actually decent enough for the price. Think they are chinese made but quality was surprisingly good for the price - only €90!
I've also tried out peavey basses, and there not half bad either, but if you are serious and using it a lot I would probably pay a bit more.

Adyx

sugarman wrote: »

+1, Squire P-Bass for the win. Picked up one about 5 years ago in MM for like €180 and i still use it today... well.. at the mo it's in a 100 pieces:p

Another +1. I got a Squier P-Bass off Thomann a couple of years ago for less than €180. For the money it's a great bass (Controls were **** but supplied strings were actually pretty good). For a budget of €200 you might get something better second hand though.

Tomas911

+1 Aria
Squiers are very tempermental, for the odd decent one you get there are 2 bad ones

Rigsby

feylya wrote: »

Try an SX Jazz bass. Surprisingly nice. You can get them in Waltons.

+1. Better value than a Fender Squire IMO.

basshead56

Arias are great basses, especially when on a budget.
You might want to try a yamaha-ideally one from the RBX series. I started on an rbx170 and I still have it (albeit in a bag in a cupboard) they are fantastic sounding for the little money involved. p and j pickups, lightweight and thick sounding.
SX, im not so sure of. the sx acoustic bass I have isnt the greatest by any means
A decent enough epiphone would be another way to go-one of the sg shaped ones.
Also, if youre lucky enough to come across one-the Gretsch Pro jet Electromatic jr bass is fantastic. very simple design and nice clear kick all in a shortscale bass.
But for my money, you cant beat a Squier-unless its one of those signature models (Frank Bello, Mike Dirnt-absolute pants!)
The vintage modified series are fantastic quality and far superior to anything in that price bracket and much better than most of the Affinity (very lowest) series. Though i do quite like the Bronco bass.
But maybe a second hand bass would be best.
Look out for mexican fender basses as they often pop up for a little bit over your budget-but they are worth every penny (9times out of 10)
Basshead

brahms9

You might want to try a yamaha

+1

Way underrated, easy as good as Fender, and good quality control. A second hand one could be a bargain.

brahms9

ClutchIt

I went in to x-music and bought a Cort Action Bass for €219. She's a good bass and good value. Has both P&J pickups and 24 frets. Action needs to be taken down a tad but it's still a good bass.

I preferred it to the SX I tried in Waltons. I'm only dissapointed because out of X-music, Waltons and Music Maker only Music Maker had Ibanez basses which is what I was looking for. They had the cheapest ones but I'd have liked to try something higher from the Ibanez range. Either way I'm happy with my purchase, thanks a lot for everyones help

feylya

I picked up the active version of that bass a while back. Very nice bass.

population

Bought a Yamaha in Perfect Pitch for about 200 quid about 4 years ago. The pickups are really clear and it pretty much suits all my recording needs

Tomas911

ClutchIt wrote: »

I went in to x-music and bought a Cort Action Bass for €219. Action needs to be taken down a tad but it's still a good bass.

Why didn't you get them to sort out the action?
It should have been set up before it was sold.
Ironic that it is called the Cort Action Bass